Meeeshell the Metro - an SD1 substitute

 

 

One Man & His Dog...

This is my dad and his ("our") 2nd car.  This cheeky little lady is called Meeeshell the Metro.  She's a 1993 Rover Metro 1.1S. 5 speed and 5 door.

Meeeshell is my winter hack and extended family back-up car. 

We acquired Meeeshell on 12th September 2003, a month or so after her 10th birthday.  She's become an integral part of the family fleet owing to her Japanese inspired reliability, decent handling and nippy performance.

Spotters Corner - yep, that GB sticker is there for a reason...!  Ooh la la, Vive La France..!

        

MOT Year

Mileage Recorded

August 29th 1996

19807
August 27th 1997 25305

October 9th 1997

25933

August 26th 1998

27399

August 26th 1999

28729

August 24th 2000

29997

August 16th 2001

31043

August 29th 2002

31861

September 11th 2003

32829

September 3rd 2004

41991

August 30th 2005

51917
September 20th 2006 59805
      
Prevention is better than cure! Details
Remove and replace cambelt £139.66 on 30.9.2003 at 32891 miles
Full Gold Service £178.56 on 01.7.2004 at 40342 miles
Replace cambelt and Full Gold Service £483.82 on 17.10.2006 at 60247 miles
Uber reliability?  Ja!  Doch, weiss ich...

It's common sense to replace the cambelt in a timely fashion on any car fitted with such an item. 

We treated the car to a full service knowing that she was going to get some abuse and a lot of "high" mileage put on her - for a 2nd car, anyway.  It was meant to be an annual thing.  Oh well...!

As yet, 3 years on, there are no signs of any head gasket failure, for which the K-series is famed.

In the spring of 2006 Meeeshell had some new rear quarters fitted and we attended to the rust that was just about to break through around the sunroof area.  Well, the garage had done such a great job on Bob!  Now Meeeshell is the envy of all the other local Metros...! Photos to follow when the sun is shining again...

 

Lets chuck money at the problem Details
Scratching noise coming from brakes £19.97 on 31.1.2004 at 37081 miles
Middle exhaust and wheel alignment £70.45 on 13.8.2004
Tyre and rebuild front brakes £189.45on 3.8.2005 at 51706 miles
Tyres & tracking £61.69 on 31.1.06
2x rear wheel arches £56.17 on 20.4.06
Fit and paint the above... Circa £1000 in used notes...

 

           

 Home Page again please...

Low mileage, one owner from new?  Yeah right...

Since buying Meeeshell, we've thus far managed to put 20,000 miles on her. 

That's 20,000 almost problem free miles and three problem-free MoT tests in our ownership.  Not bad at all when you consider her role in the family is to be "used and abused" in order to take the pressure off Bob & Roger - our family SD1s.

We should bear in mind, too, that Meeeshell had covered only 7,500 miles in the previous 6 years.

Spotters Corner - yep, that's two MoT certificates for 1997 - the dealer whacked on 12 months MOT for the new owner.